The last of the winter chores were done after harvest, to put the vineyard to bed for the winter. The bird netting and shade cloth used for last harvest’s protection have been rolled up, marked with the row number, and put into the barn for storage until next summer. Compost has been shoveled onto the…
Following the devastation of the Glass Fire in September 2020, upon consultation with my vineyard manager I made the decision to try to replant the vineyard and re-install the infrastructure of the vineyard as soon as possible. With the lack of supplies and Covid restrictions, getting material and people to do the work took a…
On the evening of October 8, we witnessed a furry of hurricane-force winds, the likes of which had never been seen in Wine Country before. Starting in the northwestern section of the Napa Valley, at the foot of Mt. St. Helena north of Calistoga and traveling west towards Santa Rosa, trees fell onto power lines…
The art of bottling takes an expert team to master. It’s a fast-moving process that combines a watchful eye and masterful hands to coordinate, so we’re thankful to work with one of the best mobile bottling operations at a state of the art facility in the Napa Valley. We’re thrilled to say that our 2015…
After nearly a month of fermentation, our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc is completely dry (meaning that we have fermented out all of the natural sugar in the sweet ripe grapes picked a month ago, and there is no residual sugar in the wine)! At this point in the process, we thought it would be fun to…
Another year with very little rainfall but text-book growing conditions, 2013 gave us exceptionally bold wines. In the vineyard, we had early bud break, early flower set, early veraison, and an ideal balanced summer leading to an early harvest. We harvested about the same bountiful yields as the year prior, with excellent ripeness and great acid balance to boot! The typical Herb…
January 2013. While watching the 800th college Bowl game and NFL football play-offs for the last two weekends, we have simultaneously been cleaning out the “wine info” shelves in the basement – throwing out years of labels, release notes, pre-printed envelopes and promotional material into the re-cycle bin. We had methodically saved all the extra…
This was going to be exciting and different – picking Sauvignon Blanc under lights in the middle of the night! Although night time harvests, with their spot lights lighting the sky as though it was a local football game, have been used in the Napa Valley for many years, we have never been part of…